question for kenwood/garmin HU owners

[theliman]

hey guys,

i am thinking about getting a kenwood hu (9140, 7140, 6190..). i already have a garmin gps (265wt) and am willing to go without the traffic to have my gps integrated. however, i've read some people saying that the nav in these kenwoods doesn't display street names when you have not entered a destination or names that are not relevant to your route. can anyone comment on this? i don't know if i'd want to go without that too.

 

[jharris2]

hey guys,

i am thinking about getting a kenwood hu (9140, 7140, 6190..). i already have a garmin gps (265wt) and am willing to go without the traffic to have my gps integrated. however, i've read some people saying that the nav in these kenwoods doesn't display street names when you have not entered a destination or names that are not relevant to your route. can anyone comment on this? i don't know if i'd want to go without that too.

Can't comment on the Kenwood functions, but suggest you might also want to consider the cost and frequency of map updates. On the Garmin, you can get lifetime quarterly map updates for $120 (less if you shop around). If Kenwood has a similar program, then that's great -- but if not, then I'd personally lean towards the Garmin for that reason alone.

My $0.02.

 

[Goatdog]

The Kenwoods use a Garmin GPS. They have the same interface as any Garmin. They can be updated with newer Garmin maps when that becomes an issue.

I've had my 5140 for a year now. I like it a lot.

 

[Ducman]

Hmm

I read your post twice and I am still not exactly sure what you are asking. I dont have the live traffic addon for mine and it works great.

I am totally happy with my Kenwood/Garmin unit. It worked flawlessly on a 2800 mile road trip last year and was a huge help. My friend has Caddy STS thats only like 3 years old and the NAV is a joke compared to what I've got.

The NAV gets used atleast once a week. Map DVDs are $89 for the current year from Garmin.

Really the only negative I can say on that deck is if you use album art on your mp3s it causes a slight delay right when the song is first being played. It will not register any screen touches for the first 2-3 seconds of the song. Remove the album art and no issues. 16GB USB thumb drive works great and holds all the music I care about. :guitar3:

 

[runhokierun]

I recently installed a DNX-6160 and also own a couple of Nuvis. I think what you are asking about is while you are driving around without a destination in the GPS, does the unit show you upcoming street names? For instance, on the Nuvis, if I'm just driving around with the map page up and no destination, at the top of the screen it will show what the next cross street is. Unfortunately I think you have been told correctly that this does not happen on the DNX-6160. I do like this feature on the Nuvis but not enough to give up the all-in-one convenience of the DNX. My understanding is that the software in the DNX is the same as at least one of the Nuvis (not sure which one; there are definitely differences), so it may be that this is a difference in Nuvi model software.

 

[Goatdog]

I recently installed a DNX-6160 and also own a couple of Nuvis. I think what you are asking about is while you are driving around without a destination in the GPS, does the unit show you upcoming street names? For instance, on the Nuvis, if I'm just driving around with the map page up and no destination, at the top of the screen it will show what the next cross street is. Unfortunately I think you have been told correctly that this does not happen on the DNX-6160. I do like this feature on the Nuvis but not enough to give up the all-in-one convenience of the DNX. My understanding is that the software in the DNX is the same as at least one of the Nuvis (not sure which one; there are definitely differences), so it may be that this is a difference in Nuvi model software.

The Garmin in my DNX 5140 does show upcoming street names if I am not using it to take me to a destination. It is a good feature.